Running the Club

Our Club is run for members by members. We rely entirely on volunteers stepping forward and getting involved in one way or the other. There are three main aspects or parts to running the Club: 

• supporting ski touring
• developing the Club and its membership
• ensuring the Club is properly run (yes, it has to be done!), which is done through the committee and several teams and groups

Supporting ski touring 

We're all keen ski tourers, so it's no surprise that supporting ski touring is the main activity in the Club. This area involes:

• developing a programme of ski tours and Scottish meets each year
• supporting volunteer tour leaders
• delivering training meets
• keeping safety messages relevant and up-to-date
• sharing our ski touring experiences

This area is mainly led by the ski touring sub-committee - a group or team of people who are interested in supporting and developing these activities. This group includes the Touring Secretary, Scottish Secretary and the Training Officer. Other groups, such as communications, get involved too. 

Developing the Club and its membership

As a very active Club, we need to change with the times. Over the last 15 years or so, we've seen social media and the use of mobile phones become part of our everyday lives, climate change becoming a key global issue and the need to attract a younger and more diverse group of people into ski touring and to become members of the Club. We also help members to contact other members about ski touring, events and related stuff, such as gear for sale.

To help us do this, we have three groups of people with an interest in communications, climate care and our low carbon challenge, and membership development. A number of people lead this work, including the Communications Secretary, Membership Secretary, IT Officer, Newsletter Editor, Youth & Diversity Officer and the UK Events Coordinator.

Ensuring our Club is properly run

We also need to do the formal stuff, such as ensuring that we run the Club effectively by setting out priorities, reviewing progress, looking after club funds carefully and collecting membership subs. This is mainly done by the Club Committee and Officers such as the President, Vice President, Treasurer and the Membership Secretary.

How we organise ourselves

Our Constitution describes how we organise ourselves to do this. This includes:

• a Committee of Officers and elected members which meets up to four times a year to oversee and steer all of the work that the Club does
• an Annual General Meeting
• taking other steps necessary for the proper management of the Club's affairs (including setting up sub-committees and working groups, appointing to non-committee roles) 

All the Officers and Committee Members stand for election or re-election at each AGM. The Committee meets up to four times a year to discuss and agree priorities and review progress. You can find out about these meetings, including minutes of past meetings, here:

Committee Meetings

There are also various Officers, such as the Newsletter Editor and the IT Officer, who are appointed to non-Committee roles. You can find a list of Officers and committee members here: 

Current Officers & Committee

The AGM is normally held in November each year. You can find out about these meetings, including minutes of past meetings, here:

Annual General Meetings

The "engine room" of how our Club works and focus on the main areas of activity are the sub-committees. These are groups of Officers and club members who work together to deliver things. Membership of each sub-committee is approved annually by the Club Committee. To find out more about the current membership, terms of reference, etc just click on the relevant one below:

Communications sub-committee

Touring sub-committee

Membership development sub-committee

Finance sub-committee

Climate Care sub-committee

To deal with an urgent or emerging issue, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, we sometimes set up a working group. For example, the Covid-19 Working Group was set up in June 2020 to help frame the Club's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and has developed "Guidance for Club activities - Autumn 2021". The notes of the most recent meeting (14 December 2021) are here.  

A Management Coordination group supports the President in overseeing and coordinating the Club’s operational business. It is chaired by the President, and includes the Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Touring Secretary (as chair of the Touring Sub-committee) and Communications Secretary (as chair of the Communications sub-committee). Other Committee members may be asked to join as required. The notes of the most recent meeting (21 December 2021) are here. 

The Club has a Serious Incident Group which meets as and when necessary to handle a serious incident and our response to it. The membership includes the Touring Secretary, Scottish Meets Secretary, President, Vice President and Secretary (as available).

The structure of these more formal arrangements is summarised below: